By China CSR Watch (www.csrcsr.com)

Exactly half a year after a blog entry advocating the removal of Starbucks from the Forbidden City by Rui Chenggang, a famouse TV news anchorman, the global coffee giant finally closed its Forbidden City branch on July 13th.

This single blog entry was read more than 560,000 times and attracted more than 2800 comments. The story also made a front cover story on Fortune magazine and roused worldwide debate on culture and globalization.

Starbucks first opened it Forbidden City store seven years ago.

“Starbucks is the vehicle and symbol of American cuisine. It may be ok for Starbucks to open a branch near Forbidden City, but not inside the Forbidden City to be part of our collective memory on this sacred place. This is not globalization. This is culture invasion,” states Mr. Rui in his January 12th blog.

Sources (in Chinese and English):
Rui Chenggang’s blog:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4adabe27010008yg
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4adabe2701000am6
Fortune: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100034253/index.htm
Beijing Morning Post: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-07-14/031012201426s.shtml